Haiti gangs' US terrorism designation risks entrenching their powers

9/5/2025 6:36

The designation of

Haiti's major gangs as terrorists by Washington could risk

further entrenching their power by limiting financial and

humanitarian aid, NGOs focused on organized crime and human

rights have warned.



The United States last week designated Viv Ansanm, the armed

alliance that controls most of capital Port-au-Prince, and Gran

Grif, which operates in the breadbasket Artibonite region, as

terrorist groups, following similar measures made recently for

Latin American drug cartels.



The designation is intended to isolate the groups, denying

them access to financing from U.S. people or companies.



"Terrorist designations play a critical role in our fight

against these vicious groups and are an effective way to curtail

support for their terrorist activities," Secretary of State

Marco Rubio said at the time.



Analysts at the Global Initiative Against Transnational

Organized Crime said on Thursday that the designation could,

however, "inadvertently worsen the situation on the ground."



It said the move could threaten the activities of some NGOs

who engage with gangs to deliver aid to communities under gang

control - potentially cutting off aid and making populations

even more dependent on the armed groups. International

businesses could also leave Haiti to avoid the risk of falling

foul of U.S. law, it added.



Haiti's Center for Analysis and Research for Human Rights

earlier this week raised similar doubts, saying the move could

hurt NGOs working with Haiti's most vulnerable in

gang-controlled areas, already hit by frozen U.S. aid funding.



"If drastic and appropriate measures are not taken to

contain the root of the problem (such as) arms trafficking from

the United States and across the Haitian-Dominican border, then

gang members, most of whom are social victims, could become even

more radicalized," it said in its report.



An alliance of gangs has been using brutal tactics to grow

its power since the 2021 assassination of Haiti's last

president.



Pierre Esperance, who heads Haiti's National Network for the

Defense of Human Rights, said in an interview on Tuesday that

his group had long considered the gangs as terrorists.



"During 2024 they started setting people on fire while they

were in their homes, they stopped them from running out and

burnt them, rapes continued, kidnappings... These are terrorist

acts," he said.



In a recent report, Haiti-focused security adviser Halo

Solutions Firm said while nuanced enforcement could cripple gang

financing, "a policy that does not distinguish between corrupt

enablers and extorted survivors will risk collapsing the

commercial backbone of the country."



Haiti's central bank on Wednesday warned lenders, exchange

bureaus and payment services to be vigilant for exposure to

operations financing terrorist groups.



More than 1,600 people were killed in violent clashes in the

first three months of this year while over 1 million are

internally displaced, according to U.N. estimates, with local

security services backed by limited international support.